Dental caries and periodontal diseases are among the most common chronic diseases affecting billions of people around the world. These two diseases are the leading cause of tooth loss which severely influences the quality of life of patients. Conventional approaches to treat those diseases do not perform biological repair or regeneration. Therefore, these treatments cannot fully recover the biological functions of normal teeth. Tissue engineering approaches have been introduced as an alternative strategy to restore lost tissues (dentin, pulp, periodontal ligament, etc.). This approach has an advantage over traditional strategies in that after healing, the damaged/lost tissues are restored to their original state. Clearly, regeneration is the most desirable outcome for any therapy. Significant progress of dental tissue regeneration has been made in recent years. However, the regeneration of well-organized dental tissues, which are crucial to perform their biological functions, has never been achieved. One of the main barriers is the difficulty of developing suitable biomaterials/matrix to guide cell growth, differentiation, and new tissue formation.
According to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), dental caries and periodontal diseases affect 92% and 8.5%, respectively, of adults from 20 to 64 years old in USA. Current clinical treatments have various limitations and cannot fully recover the biological function of the original tooth. While tissue engineering strategies have been proven, the potential to regenerate functional dental tissues with the same structure of the natural dental counterparts has not been accomplished. Without the proper structure, the engineered tissue cannot fulfill its biological function.